FOOD KITCHEN FINDS A HOME

For years, Bonnie Cipriani quietly drove her battered brown van around the city, delivering free sandwiches to the homeless by night.

The seeds she planted years ago grew into a food kitchen that today provides thousands of meals a year for hungry people.

Cipriani, a dutiful worshiper at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, was the inspiration for the Caring Kitchen, which on Thursday celebrated its new home in a renovated American Legion hall on Northwest Eighth Avenue.

"She's like everybody's mother," said Eric Miller, 35, who eats at Caring Kitchen and helps deliver food to others in need. "She's like an angel without wings."

Cipriani, who retired last year from Caring Kitchen for family reasons and now works in the bakery of a Boynton Beach Publix supermarket, shies from the spotlight and would say little about her good deeds.

"I don't do what I do for publicity," said Cipriani, 55, of Delray Beach, who still donates food to the service. "I do it for the love of the people."

A coalition of Palm Beach County churches and synagogues built on Cipriani's mission, turning one woman's individual quest to help people into a soup kitchen and delivery network that feeds nearly 200 people a day.

The coalition, called Christians Reaching Out to Society Urban Ministries, runs four food pantries throughout the county, including Caring Kitchen. The kitchen last month moved into its first permanent home, in the Legion hall.

The coalition began looking to set up a feeding program in Delray in 1993, after research showed a need for more hot meal programs in the southern part of the county.

Coalition members had heard about Cipriani's volunteer work, and approached her with a paid position to expand her sandwich delivery program into a full-fledged hot meal service.

Cipriani accepted and began serving hot meals to people in need with the help of at least five volunteers a day at Caring Kitchen.

At the time, Cipriani ran the food service from the kitchen of Greater Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church on Northwest Fourth Avenue, where she also distributed free clothing donated by community organizations.

"Bonnie was one of the key players," said Juanita Bryant, coordinator of the countywide food pantry program that oversees Caring Kitchen. "We saw a need to have a hot meal program. And she was already out there doing it."

When Greater Mount Olive converted its kitchen into a classroom in August, Caring Kitchen had to find another home. Some members of the church belonged to a nearby American Legion hall and offered a permanent location there.

The hall needed a lot of work to make it into a suitable kitchen. A number of professional contractors - most of them members of different coalition churches - donated $75,000 worth of labor and equipment to renovate the old hall.

Coalition volunteers installed a new electrical system, new lighting and new plumbing.

"It was filthy and full of rats. Just terrible," said Arnold Smith, vice president of Mouw and Associates, a Delray Beach general contractor, who oversaw renovations. "We had to go in there and cut up floors and put in floor drains."

In October, midway through the renovations, Cipriani retired from Caring Kitchen. At her going-away reception, she asked that volunteers not thank her. At Cipriani's request, "We did a round of applause to God instead of to Bonnie," Bryant said.

Before leaving, Cipriani donated her 1986 Ford Econoline van to the food kitchen. Her successor, Susie Elliott, uses it to deliver food to as many as 80 invalids and senior citizens who can't make it to the kitchen each day.

Elliott never leaves the kitchen until she and a handful of volunteers have served lunch to more than a hundred people each day.

The Legion hall, once a shabby eyesore in a residential area, now rivals any small restaurant, complete with a new stove, walk-in freezer and air-conditioning system.

Those who came to the pantry on Wednesday had their choice of salad, a barbecue beef sandwich, baked beans and an assortment of cakes and pies. One who came for lunch was Terri Gill, 36, who recently moved from Tennessee to a house in Delray with three children, ages 4, 8 and 12.

"The cost of living here is higher than in Tennessee," said Gill, who plans to take classes in computer science. "Sometimes, money don't last from check to check. Even though I'm getting child support, it still ain't enough."

To celebrate their new home and thank all the volunteers, the coalition threw a party at the food kitchen on Thursday night.

Mayor Jay Alperin gave out plaques from the city to thank volunteers, who hope their work will pay off when more people find out about Delray's own food pantry.

As they were raising money for the move, volunteers learned that many people did not know about Caring Kitchen because of its location.

"This is going to be our permanent place," Elliott said. "We ain't moving. Then everybody knows this is where we are."

To volunteer or give donations to the Caring Kitchen, call 278-0918 between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays.